


Morningstar

by NotZiz



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 17:37:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotZiz/pseuds/NotZiz
Summary: What happened after the Epilogue? How are the Undersiders faring, what are Teacher's nefarious schemes, how are the various Earths recovering...and most importantly, what happened to Taylor? The fic will be following Tattletale as she navigates the remnants of civilization.Warning: This fic was started before Ward and as such does not fully mesh with Ward canon. It occurs before Ward starts, but after Worm canon. Some elements of Ward were used because frankly WB is more creative than I am.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. Prelude: Heist

### Prelude: Heist

Jack looked around the building. A nervous energy rushed through him as he watched, even though he had observed it for weeks before. He had paid a hefty sum for the building layout, the guard rotations, who was stationed. But it would all be worth it.

The base of Tattletale, notorious Thinker and leader of the Undersiders, previously close teammate and friend of Khepri. If anyone had loot worth stealing, it was her. A survivor of Earth Bet, one of the few to fight Scion and live, and one of the fewer to have spent Golden Morning not under Khepri’s thrall; her riches must be untold. Relics from Earth Bet were already at a premium, processed goods were still on a bubble of inflation as supply lines and factories got re-established.

He had gotten his power after Scion had decided to scour worlds of life, the golden beams had laid waste to his own world. It had been dubbed Earth Shin, apparently fairly far down the list of Earths discovered in the more open inter-dimensional access post-Scion. His world had suffered, like many others, but not as much as worlds like Bet.

He had triggered shortly after Golden Morning, caught under a building he was looting whose foundation had been compromised and collapsed, trapping him inside. After a day of shouting in the darkness and feeling the dust choking him, he had triggered. He had the power to phase through, well, anything. He could just pop and shift into a state where he could walk through anything. He had simply walked out of the wreckage.

His power wasn’t perfect, he had to be careful not to phase back while being inside anything. He didn’t so much telefrag as get telefragged, his power selectively preferring what already existed if there was a conflict. He could escape basically any situation by just opting out and leaving. People couldn’t see him while he was phased out, or rather there was only a very very subtle impression that he was there. It was practically invisible.

He had lived very lucratively since then. No one could even see him steal things, more or less stop him. If he could pull this heist off, he’d be set for years. Or at least a few months at his rate of spending.

_Not like there’s a lack of things to steal though. I don’t need to be frugal when I can just take the money right back._

_Do or die, except I can’t die so time to just do it._

He didn’t need the guards' schedules and everything, but it made him feel better. Tattletale wasn’t exactly some local warlord who he could just blow off. No, he wanted to make this perfect. The less information she had to go off about him, the harder to track him down afterwards.

He waited for the guards to change shifts, then waited for the ones on shift to pause to light up some cigarettes. He phased out, walking quickly across the base’s entrance and through a wall they weren’t watching too close. There were no camera blind spots, but he could minimize exactly how much they saw.

He made it inside, waiting inside a wall that he stuck his phased out head out of to peek around. The way was clear except for the ever present and watching cameras, so he proceeded into the hall and right into the opposite wall. He took a straight path to the elevator, knowing the changing of the shifts meant the guards would be headed down. His power didn’t let him sink through the ground, but it also meant moving vertically while phased was difficult and awkward.

Instead he just stood in the back of the elevator as the guards took it down to the barracks level. From there, he tip-toed across the floor. Unnecessary technically, but he felt loud without doing it. He waited in a wall, the front of his face barely out so he could see. One of the officers in her organization would be passing by in a bit, to report to her office. It wasn’t quite a rote schedule, that would be too predictable. But he did have the schedule for this week, so he knew he could pull it off today.

Just like the information he had paid handsomely for said, an official looking soldier walked by carrying a sheaf of paper and headed for the elevator. He followed along from inside the wall and took the lift down with him. Keycard scan, retinal scan, passcode punched in. The man walked out and Jack followed. A winding series of hallways passing various rooms and another locked door. He waited outside and the door opened.

Tattletale’s office.

It was adorned with a number of decorations. A fancy rug, a mahogany desk, bookshelves and a very expensive looking bank of computer monitors. She went for opulent, but classy. Some things he suspected were placed strategically, like a skull that sat sideways in your field of vision as you spoke to her. One polished hole in the back of it.

They started to speak and he only half listened. Reports of no unusual activity, everything continuing as per normal, things she requested, yadda yadda yadda. Being one of the most powerful cape warlords was evidently full of a lot of boring talking. He walked through the door at the opposite end of her office, full of fancy locks on the outside. The inside was an empty chamber that he suspected was a trap if he had been phased in. He opted for the side-door in her office that was much more discreet.

He was rewarded with a large circular room, full of computers, news feeds, equipment, and more. A long, plush couch and a large TV. A small kitchenette even. A proper cape lair. There were cameras naturally, but he had paid a lot for the secrets to disable them. He backed out, waiting for Tattletale to leave. It took some time, she lounged there, scrolling through various reports on her computer’s monitors, shooting off texts on her phone. Eventually she massaged her temples and walked out of the front door.

He phased back in behind her computer, sliding a USB he had been assured would do the job into the back of her computer. Phasing back out, he walked back to the lair. The safe full of cash? He took a shaped charge from his backpack, placing it on the safe door and letting go. It phased back as soon as he let go and he phased in on the other side of the room long enough to hit the remote he had for it. A second later, there was a muffled blast as the door blew off the safe, smoke streaming out.

A fair bit of the cash had been destroyed, but it was a big safe and there was plenty left to get stuffed into his sack. He looked around the room, grabbing boxes of plastic wrapped food from Earth Bet and shoving them into another bag. Next came the trophies. A shard of the Simurgh’s wing, recovered from after the fight. A piece of Leviathan’s head. A spider silk costume that had certainly belonged to Khepri. These would be priceless, but he’d find a price for them anyway.

Her hard drives, he would take on his way out. A good tinker or hacker would certainly pay for access to whatever she stored on those. She was wealthy beyond belief compared to most, what little she had scavenged from Earth Bet was practically priceless on its own. It wasted, sitting here in her lair while he could be partying on Earth Aleph with millions in cash. Portal use was regulated, but it was easy for someone with his powers to travel.

There were other artifacts he considered grabbing. Things obviously of value that lined the shelves and cases of the room. A book, titled Charlotte’s Web. A gun, distinctly normal looking. A battered motorcycle helmet, black. A scepter, regal looking and polished. A bundle of spider-silk rope and a baton. What looked like a Tinkertech device of some kind. A white and perfectly smooth oblong shape, almost seamlessly encasing something. Several vials contained in a secure glass box, definitely valuable.

He paused. Something, he couldn’t say what, caught his eye at the far end of the room. A seam in the wall, something slightly ajar. He left the bags as he approached and phased through, checking the other side slowly. A short hallway, hidden behind the wall and another door. He looked at it. Surely something so well hidden even in her already secured fortress must be worth more than everything else he had already seen. A piece of Scion? Something he had never even heard of?

He couldn’t simply leave it unexplored, he walked through the door. On the other side was a pastel blue room. There were various machines, beeping and blinking around the room. A few robots sat, drooped over in their powered off state.

A bed sat in the center, an IV-pole next to it with a few lines leading to a figure in sitting in the center of it. Propped on the bed with pillows was a young woman, with long brown hair and her right arm missing.

He tried to step back and found he couldn’t. He couldn’t move even his smallest muscles. He was paralyzed, standing at the edge of the room, completely frozen. His mind raced, panic setting in.

_It can’t be. She disappeared. She hasn’t been seen since Golden Morning. No one could hide her, there are entire worlds wondering where she went- MOVE DAMN IT!_

_No, this can’t be it. I can’t be stuck here. It’s a bad dream, I’m drunk somewhere, on the floor, no, no, no non no no-_

“My, my. You were quite the little troublemaker to catch.” A saccharine voice spoke from behind him. He couldn’t turn, but he knew who it was.

“We tried a few things. The force-fields? That was me. Unfortunately nothing worked and well-” She paused, the sounds of pacing behind him, “-we couldn’t just leave you running rampant. Robbing Parian was a bad move. Trying to buy out my secrets and rob me?” She laughed, “That was just stupid.”

He couldn’t open his mouth to retort, to yell at her, to sling curses at her.

“Funny enough, you’re frozen so still even my power can’t pick up much. You see, we couldn’t figure out a way to trap you, before you showed up, other than this. So that’s it. You’re stuck. Forever.”

_No, that can’t be right. There has to be a way out._

“15.98 feet. That’s her range. Once you’re inside of it, she has absolute control of you. She’s the only one who can release you and as you can see…” There was a pause for a gesture, “She’s not exactly in a state to do that.”

“Maybe, if we can find a way to contain you, we’ll use a robot to push you out. Your power is too potentially useful to just kill you off right off the bat, so we’ll put you on an IV. Maybe even get you a chair.” There was another pause, she was still gesturing even though he couldn’t see shit. His eyes stuck, locked onto the form of Khepri’s unconscious body.

“I liked that safe. The sacrifices I make for these people, I swear.”

“Keep an eye on her? I’ll be pissed if anything happens to her under your watch!~”

His only hope for release was Khepri waking up. Hah, Khepri. Waking up. Hope.

Being under her thrall awake would be worse than death even. A puppet for her fights until he was too broken to use.

He stood there, eternal.

The door softly shut behind Jack.


	2. Teacher & Student: 1.1

### 1.1

\--8 Months Ago--

Contessa laid the ragdoll of armor and silk down in front of her. Her form was limp, that of someone either asleep or dead.

Tattletale held the pistol, keeping it pointed at Contessa.

“We both know that won’t do anything.”

“I think I’ll keep it anyway. What the fuck did you do?”

Contessa looked down at the figure, a flash of emotion on her face for a moment. Mournful. Regrets Taylor’s situation. Feels as if it should have been her. Is trying to make amends. Is the reason Taylor is alive.

Tattletale weighed the information she was feeling rush in carefully. She had opened the floodgates of her power as far as they would go the moment Contessa dropped in. Her mind raced as it jumped from node to node with each movement made and word said.

Contessa spoke, slowly, “The only thing I could. Her powers have been disabled.”

_Disabled. Not stopped or removed. Temporary solution._

“How?”

The woman paced, “Ballistic brain surgery. Careful disruption of the Corona Pollentia.”

_Multiple entry wounds. Required two shots. Corona Pollentia had engorged and spread like a tumor. Too much for a single shot to disrupt. Too intricately intertwined with her brain to disrupt without major effects._

Contessa nodded, “You see what I mean then.”

Tattletale nodded back, slowly. She felt her eyes itch with irritation, blinking it away rapidly. The figure between them laid unmoving except for the slowest rise and fall of her chest. She wanted to rush over and make sure she was okay, but at the same time couldn’t.

“Is this what your fucking path required? All that talk of sacrifice, of the greater good and in the end it’s not even you who has to fucking suffer. You just get to waltz off, leaving the rest of us to pick up the goddamn pieces.”

She gripped the pistol, knuckles white around it.

“Oh, sure, I can’t kill you if you’re running a path against it, but I don’t need to. This is all part of a redemption ploy for you. You keep her from dying, drop her off to a teary friend, and disappear feeling like you’ve done the world a fucking favor. That you’ve paid us back somehow.”

Tattletale spat the words out as she felt her power fill them in, “You haven’t even gotten close. Maybe you’re okay with that, you’ll pay for it a little bit at a time. Spend the years whittling your debt to humanity down. Well sucks, because it’ll never fucking pay off. In the end, it wasn’t you who saved humanity. It wasn’t your paths, it wasn’t your army, it wasn’t your fucking shadow conspiracy. Everyone you used died and they died in vain, not giving Scion even ten minutes pause. No, we won despite all your pseudo-self important bullshit.”

“You can’t pay off your debt because it never bought us anything. Was it worth it?”

Contessa recoiled and then stood stock still for a few seconds as the silence sunk in between them, lodging in and establishing a foothold. She looked down, face hidden from Tattletale’s view.

_Ashamed. Uncertain. Will run a path to handle this uncertainty._ She felt her outrage boil up and over. No, she didn’t just get to deliver a broken Taylor to her and just leave. Tattletale wasn’t putting up with another damn precog fucking up her best friend and then running off to feel good with themselves for saving the world. Fuck Contessa. Fuck Dinah. Tattletale couldn’t out precog them, but she’d be damned if she let them go feeling good about themselves.

Tattletale broke the silence, “Nuh-uh. You don’t get to path out of fucking everything. You saw how her agent subsumed her. Turned her into something else. You can path out the right words, the right thoughts to feel okay, but can you do a god damn thing yourself? When was the last time you felt fear, not fear of Scion, but genuine helplessness? You’re not even human anymore. Not in the ways that count.”

She laughed bitterly, “Just a useless extension of your own mortal enemy.”

“You want to try and repent? Handle this without your fucking path.”

Contessa paused again, speaking after a moment, “There is a Cauldron facility on Earth Vav. I’ll give you the location and the passcode. It has facilities to help Weaver.”

“And...good luck.”

Contessa scrawled something on the back of a business card, placing it gently on top of Taylor before she turned around. Tattletale watched as the woman walked off and around a corner, out of her sight.

She let the pistol drop from her grip with a clatter on the floor. Her hands shook as she took deep breaths to calm herself. She was gone and Taylor was left. Oh god, Taylor. Tattletale kneeled down, hugging the comatose form of her friend tightly. The beat of her heart was weakly audible and Tattletale rested in the singular focus of listening to it for awhile.

\---

Tattletale watched as the doctor finished setting up his tools. He had two assistants and an impressive array of medical equipment at his command. He still worked with a nervous air to him as he finished the final preparations.

“Are you certain you want to go through with this? I can’t guarantee how she’ll come out, this is highly experimental after all.” He asked in a voice slightly hoping for her to tell him to stop.

Tattletale nodded however, looking at him unimpressed, “Well it’s not like there’s a lot of other people I can even ask for a second opinion. Go for it.”

He acquiesced, turning back to his preparations as Tattletale watched. Taylor’s head was immobilized via a 3-pin device. Tubes ran out of her, an IV to keep her healthy, a tube from her spine to balance the fluids during surgery. Her head had been shaved down in preparation. Unnecessary technically, but easier and she wouldn’t be being seen anytime soon.

“Alright then. We’re starting with the skin incision.”

Hours passed as the team worked and Tattletale watched. The surgeon worked carefully, following a line he had drawn out as he incised her skin and muscle. Carefully peeling it back and preserving it, his assistants being extra hands, handling the exchange of tools and flesh. Next came the drill, the whine of metal on bone as hole were drilled through her skull. A saw switched out to cut using the holes, the bone flap popped off and stored away.

Once he was inside the surgeon let out a long, low whistle from behind the mask. “Goddamn...It hardly even looks like a brain anymore. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating, but...Poor girl…”

One of the assistants recoiled slightly before schooling themselves, returning to the pattern of work ahead.

Long hours passed now as they proceeded. Internal haemorrhaging that had congealed, pushing brain matter aside, had to be removed. Torn and bruised tissue had to be carefully excised in some places to prevent further trauma. Bullet holes and local cavitation had to be treated, only the best in equipment was even capable of providing relief there. Fortunately they had it. Careful pruning of outshoots of the Corona Pollentia, futile in how invasive they were. They still tried their best to reduce it.

Implants, slices of extracellular matrix impregnated with Tinker-tech regenerative chemical signals and glia to help mend and connect the brain matter, were inserted. A remote trigger for them so that they were only released once the skull was closed, preventing any errant healing from occurring. Tattletale occasionally helped, using her power to make small deductions that were hard for the surgeon from his current angle.

Ten hours had passed, the team was exhausted. The two assistants had dwindled to shifts of one as the other sat in the chair for a few much needed minutes. The surgeon proceeded tirelessly, exhaustion balanced against Dr. Lowman’s fascination with Taylor’s extensive brain trauma.

Two more hours passed before her skull was re-established as a whole and her skin reconnected. Dr. Lowman looked up in triumph as he wiped his brow, “Well! That was a hell of a surgery, I have to tell you. Nothing like that in unpowered people. Simply wouldn’t have survived the trauma. I imagine her powers were running a fair amount of the show near when she went comatose given how much damage there was.”

Tattletale grimaced, “Yeah. She wasn’t very lucid at the end.”

He nodded, reaching for the computer keyboard. “It’s a miracle she could even move frankly. Let’s just turn on the regenerative factor and then we can all take a much needed break. She’ll need a few follow-ups, but there’s hope yet.”

She slumped a bit, nodding and turning around to head to the door. The operation was exhausting, even for her. Seeing Taylor opened up, hearing how much there was to fix, it was emotionally exhausting for Lisa. Her friend was so very broken and far away and she had so little she could do to bring her back.

“Good work Dr. Lowman. I’m sure we can find a very nice bonus for you if...”

Silence answered her and she paused, a sinking feeling in her gut.

“Dr. Lowman?”

She turned around, the medical team was immobile, frozen in their positions. Dr. Lowman’s hand just above the keyboard, mid key press. Tattletale threw a hand to her face, squeezing her eyes so she wouldn’t cry.

“Shit shit shit fuck…”


	3. 1.2

### 1.2

Tattletale groaned, looking over the three in front of her. Wills, Yeats, and Samuel were all good men; they didn’t deserve to be groaned at even if she wasn’t in the best of moods.

She waved vaguely towards her office, “Our little trespasser has been taken care of. He made a mess out of my office, so grab anyone free who has clearance and get things cleaned up. I need a new safe too. Jackass ruined it.”

They knew better than to question precisely how she had taken care of their intruder. A snappy chorus of “Yes Ma’am”s and they were off. Tattletale slouched into her office chair, grabbing the mouse to idly click around her desktop.

The thief was a nuisance that they had seen coming and planned for. The leak he got his information from was traced and disposed of. The pattern of there being a series of security leaks across the Undersiders’ bases over the past month? That bugged her. Attempts to track the Heartbroken via the Wardens, a few break-in attempts in Parian’s territory. Even an exploratory skirmish with Bitch. It hadn’t been so blatant when it happened. Each event had been in the middle of some other, related crime spree. If you fit it to a bell curve then each event would’ve been right in the middle, perfectly average.

And that’s what stunk.

The Undersiders were, if nothing else, out of the ordinary. The bell curve didn’t happen to them. Taylor had been the start of that, but her legacy and the momentum she left with the Undersiders had carried them forward on that path. Even now she kept them from being average. So when a spree of random incidents occurred that fit their unusual distribution perfectly, it had caught her attention. Someone was testing their defenses and poking at them. Not with any great oomph or vigor, but certainly with some degree of interest. Now it was a matter of finding out whom. Who? Shit. She opened up a copy of Word and put the sentence in to see if it cared. No red line either way. That wasn’t very helpful.

Would the dictionary sites be online again? Unlikely. Some portion of the Internet infrastructure had been restored on Bet, but it certainly would take years before repairs were complete. Entire portions of its backbone had been obliterated during Golden Morning. There had been patchwork attempts to bridge the most critical functionality gaps, but a lot of sites were still down or lost forever.

Naturally her inner sanctum didn’t reside on Earth Bet. That was far too risky given the number of major players there and the possibility of the Endbringers resuming their cycle. Instead she had a very expensive series of cables run through the portal so that she could peruse the Internet as it came back up in pieces.

Far too risky.

The Simurgh had returned to orbit a few months ago and no one knew what it meant. She certainly didn’t. The giant winged monstrosity wasn’t following her around anymore, which was nice, but might be using her perfect precognition to fuck the world over again, which wasn’t. Though that was unfair to the Simurgh. Ziz had in no small part contributed to their beating of Scion. It was a creeping paranoia in the back of her brain that the Simurgh had actually orchestrated the bulk of it.

Precogs that came from shards were locked from viewing the entities, but one of their own weapons might not have been. If she had chosen to side with Scion, there would’ve been very little hope that humanity could’ve survived. By process of elimination that meant she had to have sided with humanity or taken ambivalence at least. This being the Simurgh meant that if she had sided with humanity, she would’ve been responsible for the entire deal because it’s the fucking Simurgh.

All of this lead to a very grumpy Tattletale. The Simurgh was still bullshit and doing who knows what, someone was testing her and her allies’ defenses, and her office had been ransacked. On top of all that she was no closer to a solution for Taylor even months later.

Taylor, widely known as “her” or Khepri now, had been in a coma since after Scion’s defeat. The woman in the suit, Contessa, had delivered Taylor to Lisa the following day. She remembered feeling how light her friend was, how fragile she felt. Lisa had been ready to panic, her resources were largely intact but spread apart and worlds were in chaos. How was she supposed to get medical help for her?

Contessa had solved that as well. One of Cauldron’s many back-ups was ransacked for her personal use, hiding Taylor away and stabilizing her. "Good luck", Contessa’s parting words. What was luck for Contessa? Apparently leaving Lisa and Taylor alone, hidden away from the chaos of survival. Safe.

Tattletale had spent months re-establishing her power in the aftermath, easier for her than most. Her resources had largely survived, squirreled away across worlds. She had a legacy attached to her and powers well-suited for taking control. And so, during all the upheaval and power-plays, she had hidden the multiverse's biggest secret: Taylor. The one girl that everyone was looking for.

She had stealthily recruited surviving capes with healing powers, surgeons, anyone who could potentially fix her. Tattletale had fucked up. The first surgery had gone so well, she had been too hopeful. The second turned her powers back on. One step forward, one hundred steps backward. Now they couldn’t even get a surgeon or cape within 15.98 feet of her. Remote surgery was the only option left to them. Conventional surgery was ill-advised according to one of the few surviving neurosurgeons she had managed to find. Most capes with healing powers worked by proximity.

That left a healer that could work remotely, either a Blaster or a Tinker. Healing rays weren’t unheard of, but they were incredibly rare and she hadn’t managed to locate someone with them that had survived. Bio-Tinkers, on the other hand, had problems all of their own. Besides being highly sought after, feared, and reviled, they were also uncommon. Oh, she knew of one that could definitely help: Bonesaw.

The only issue? Well for one, it’s fucking Bonesaw and even if Tattletale could see her intention to reform was honest she still couldn’t get past her gut-wrenching reaction at the Tinker. Also fucking Bonesaw. Two, she was only one of the most supervised capes in the entirety of the Wardens. Tattletale couldn’t exactly ask her out for coffee and drop hints without bringing the entirety of the new Protectorate down on her head, except now with dimensional access.

So Tattletale slumped in her chair and groaned.

Something had to be done, but Taylor sure never made things easy, did she?

First things first: What was Tattletale to do with their little intruder?

He had a useful power. Not impossible to counter, but she hadn’t had much time to prepare since the heist had hit her between some bouts with one of the CUI's crews. She needed to decide somewhat quickly. While they could keep him on an IV, his own sanity would decay fairly quickly and his chance of getting a thrombosis from staying perfectly still all day might even kill him faster.

Tattletale could just kill him, but that would be wasteful. Also he had fucked with her stuff, and she wasn’t a fan of that. However, he did know about Taylor now. Something she couldn’t just ignore. If he escaped, which given his powers was very possible if she released him, then Tattletale would have a lot more heat to deal with. And she couldn’t justify a risk to Taylor that didn’t have a big pay off. Taylor had risked enough for them by now.

So he would wait. If he died of a thrombosis before she decided, so be it. She wrote a note to herself to have Dr. Lowman put something in the IV to stave that off if possible. Might as well take at least some precautions.

Now onto actual business.

She spoke into the mic on her headset, “Yeats, send ‘em up.”

A muffled voice spoke back through, “Will do.”


	4. 1.3

### 1.3

Tattletale nodded along as the proposition was laid out before her. Miss Militia sat across from her, not exactly casual, but relaxed enough considering their previous relationship.

The heroine spoke, “I’m sure you’ve got enough information on us to know why I’m here, but I’ll outline anyway unless you’d rather I skip to the point?”

Tattletale gave a casual roll of her hand, “No, no, continue. We don’t need to do the whole ‘I know-you know’ game today.”

Miss Militia nodded with a bit of humor in her eyes, “Thankfully. No offense, but dealing with Thinkers is a bit rough on the rest of us, especially when they don’t like you.”

Tattletale merely smirked in reply. The last few years had taught her the value of silence on occasion.

The patriot continued, “Bet rebuilding efforts are well underway, but we’re starting to hit one of the more difficult parts of the process. Manufactured goods are running low and the manufacturers to produce new ones aren’t quite ready yet. Essentially we’re in a slump between two phases.”

Tattletale typed away on her keyboard, doing a bit of multitasking, “We all knew it would happen, even the best supplied of us are starting to seriously ration. Prefabricated goods take longer to recover than people realize. The factory to make computer chips can’t just be rebuilt. There was a factory that made the machines for the chip factory, the components. A hundred steps until you get back to basic tools. We didn’t lose everything, but we lost enough.”

Miss Militia nodded, “Exactly. There are surviving factories and equipment, but the supply lines were heavily damaged and many of them were never part of the same supply line. It’s a matter of throwing them together as a temporary hodgepodge until we can use them to make more permanent solutions.”

Tattletale followed on from the basic premise, “So you’re coming to me for what? Supplies?”

She hesitated to use her power. She had a big meeting in the next two days that she suspected she’d need to be at top form for and she had the remnants of a headache after the earlier kerfuffle. Besides, Miss Militia was one of the least conniving members of the Wardens and knew better than to give her the runaround. They could both just be normal people with each other.

Miss Militia hesitated, “Not exactly. There are definitely some key supplies we’d be interested in purchasing, but to be frank our main interest today is in a more permanent relationship. Everyone got a new start after Golden Morning with the amnesty. That leaves us free to work with people who we never could have before. You were important in the recovery of New York, your efforts towards rebuilding haven’t gone unnoticed.”

Tattletale raised her eyebrows. “You want me to go rogue then basically, shift into a nice little contract and snuggle up to the fledgling Wardens.”

The heroine retorted, “Not at all. You can do whatever you’ve been doing. Technically we have no jurisdiction out here, so we can’t consider anything here criminal unless it’s particularly heinous. Rather than a contract try to think of it like an alliance. We all want civilization to return; the sooner and the more peaceful, the better. We’d be two independent parties that prefer to help each other rather than fight. In our case, that means purchasing supplies from you, hopefully getting some input in terms of logistics and intelligence. On your end that means you get the same support from us.”

Tattletale looked away from the computer and leaned back in her chair, “Not gonna lie, that was one of the better pitches I’ve heard over the last eight months. Though, to be fair, the bar was pretty low. I don’t even know why they thought pillage and warlording would appeal to me. Been there, done that, ya know? The big issue for me is: What do I get out of it? As you admitted, I’m the one with the supply surplus. I have better information than the Wardens too. So this seems rather one-sided.”

Miss Militia folded her arms.n “Aren’t you interested in rebuilding Bet?”

She shook her head with a grin, “Don’t get me wrong, I totally am. After all, it’s harder to do my sophisticated supervillain thing if I can’t go to a coffee shop because the world has collapsed into feudalism. What I’m saying is you want what I have plenty of. So I want what you have plenty of.”

A quirked eyebrow. “Which would be?”

Tattletale made a finger gun and pointed at her. “Muscle. I mean, I’m not slouching on it, but frankly having the Wardens agree to give me a hand if someone nasty comes and picks a fight would be worth quite a bit. You guys have the new and improved Eidolon. There’s a lot of factions fighting for the scraps. You want to help make the world stable again? Gimme a little support. Let me do the Undersiders thing. Brockton Bay never recovered half as well as when we were running it and you know it.”

She let the pitch sink in before she continued, “We’re going to do it either way, but this way you guys would get a bit of a say in the process. If we handle the CUI remnants, that’s one less threat for you guys in two years down the line. I’m not some mustache twirling serial killer here that you’re dealing with. You know me. We make the alternate worlds and colonies a more stable area, you guys get help revitalizing Bet and building up Gimel, everyone wins and civilization doesn’t collapse in and eat itself. Whaddya say?”

The flag bearing hero leaned forward, carefully weighing her words. There was a pause as she obviously ran through initial considerations, possible red flags, the works. Tattletale leaned back and watched, relying on normal people reading. She was considerate, she hadn’t immediately said no. She was interested, she leaned forward and had listened intently. Her smirk grew just a centimeter more as the confirmation slid into place.

She spoke carefully, “I’ll need to consult with Chevalier obviously. I don’t have the authority to grant that flat out. And terms will need to be discussed a lot more concretely than “a bit of a say”...But it sounds possible. Not knowing how to compromise was one of my former department’s biggest mistakes and I like to think we’ve learned better by now. I won’t promise specifics, but we’ll be in touch probably within a week to hammer it out. Would you be okay with traveling to our headquarters for that?”

Miss Militia extended a hand out, offering it up for a handshake.

Tattletale gave her a vulpine grin as she took it. “Sure, sure. I won’t make Chevalier trek all the way out here this time.”

A weary smile came from the patriot. “I really do hope we can build a better future together.”


	5. 1.4

### 1.4

\--Two days later--

Tattletale sighed as she stared down Marquis. The man was imposing, and not just because of the knowledge that he could scrape her brain off the roof of her skull at a moment’s notice. It was because he was one of the few parahumans who had only grown more clever and dangerous with age. She was safe anyway, she reassured herself. The man had strict codes he set for himself and not hurting women and children was one of them. She no longer fell into the latter, but the former still protected her to a certain degree.

“Doing well for yourself in Boston, Marquis?” She asked, the small shifts in his body cluing her in before he spoke.

“As well as can be expected I think. The Wardens have made it one of their main bases, so I’d be remiss to do anything too bold at the moment.” He spoke with the same pleasant deep tones that had made him easy to pick out for decades.

She quirked a brow, “You actually buy into that whole deal then? I hadn’t been sure if you were the type.”

Marquis contemplated his tea in return, “Before, perhaps not. But now? There’s been a bit too much lost for the same old style to have its appeal. Don’t get me wrong, Marquis is not retiring or re-branding. Just reconsidering some parts of my operation. I do have a daughter to consider now as well.”

Tattletale couldn’t help but smirk, “We both know that has not and will never stop you.”

He chuckled in return, it sounded so harmless when heard out of context. “No, I suppose I would’ve stopped long ago if that were the case. But I’m happy to put less pressure on the Wardens. They’ve rebuilt with noble ideals and a monumental task. I can at least respect that.”

She leaned on her hand, propped up by her elbow.

“Noble goals aside, what did you want to speak with me for? I can’t imagine you called me here only for small talk.”

He placed the teacup down on the saucer. The entire room fell into the same old-fashioned theme. The book cases were mahogany, the fireplace was authentic, the rug something old and thick-_bear skin, vintage, 1880s?_ She cut the information off, useless trivia wasn’t something she needed at the moment.

The Marquis shifted in his seat and that was something she could let her power hone in on. Fidgeting. _Does that when he’s concerned. Few things to be concerned over with his organization. Bothered him enough to call other big players. Players, plural. Not just me. Hedging his bets._

“What are your thoughts on the current state of affairs? The balance of powers?” He asked, slowly. _Not just small talk now. Relevant to concern. Something that disrupts power balance._

She shrugged in return, “They’re fine. The Wardens are re-establishing order, albeit with trouble. The worst of the villains get culled so we can all sleep well at night. There’s no looming existential threats, so that’s an improvement in my books.”

He nodded, weighing her words more than she’d have liked. “Very true. As a species, we are our own worst enemy. A saying before that didn’t quite capture the truth now does. And your thoughts of someone who would disrupt that entirely?”

She pursed her lips, “It would depend on how. There’s only two extremes. I enjoy my little operation-” A snuff from him, “-but if the Wardens managed to make things crime-free and peaceful I wouldn’t be too upset. Somehow I think you must be referring to the other.”

The Marquis gave her a small smile, “Naturally. It wouldn’t be good old Earth Bet without a worlds-spanning conspiracy, would it?”

_Worlds spanning. Plural. Multiple big players. Large-scale goal beyond local power plays. Successor organization to Cauldron? Oriented on a philosophical goal. Strong enough to concern Marquis. How does he know? Astute, but never known for specializing in information. Approached by said group or a representative._

She pinched the bridge of her nose, “So they hit you up and you didn’t like what you heard then? I can’t see you organizing a counter-movement, so this must be more subtle than that.”

He folded his hands, “Well, I don’t entirely disagree with their objectives, so no. Not a counter-movement. They claim they want to recreate the whole, restart what Scion had been doing in a sense - the fight against entropy and the ultimate goal of the entire experiment. Peace through parahuman superiority and ingenuity.”

She looked with one eye over her hand, “And the part that disturbs you?”

He tilted his head in a small acknowledgement that she was following the train of thought he wanted. “The people leading it.”

“Teacher.” She groaned.

“Teacher.” He confirmed.

She could already feel her power getting ready to follow a dozen trains of thought. “So let me get this straight. Teacher is forming some kind of alliance to pursue using powers to solve all of mankind’s troubles. He’s approaching big players and getting a feel for who supports him. And this is worrisome because it’s fucking Teacher doing it.”

Marquis shifted back in his chair with the look of someone very comfortable. Trying to hide that he’s pensive and uncomfortable.

“Exactly. We both know exactly what kind of man Teacher is and the more insidious effects his power has on those around him. I don’t think I need to explain why it’s a frankly terrifying idea.”

It was true, he didn’t. Teacher was dangerous enough with ordinary humans and low-level capes, dangerous enough to have been Birdcaged during his life. But if Teacher was collecting powerful parahumans, putting them into positions of even greater power, and connecting it all back to him? He would get exponentially more dangerous as his power base expanded.

That left the conundrum of how to act against him. A direct attack would be difficult and almost certainly planned for. Thinker vs. Thinker warfare was definitely a chance, but if he had too many low level Thinkers working for him it would give her a migraine to out-think his entire operation. She wanted to fall back on the tried and true tactic of finding his goals and hitting him at an unexpected juncture and snowballing, but he would be anticipating that. After all, she was one of the big players left and he wouldn’t have neglected to plan for her.

Especially since he hadn’t come to her with an offer. Now that was telling.

Tattletale hummed, “He asked you to keep it a secret, so why take the risk to tell me? He must have threatened something important to you. Not your power. Panacea then?”

Marquis thinned his lips, “It’d be greatly preferable for your health to avoid that subject. I’m not unaware of her opinion of you. However, you have the right idea.”

She pushed a little, knowing she could get away with it, “Teacher’s not that stupid though. He had to have known how you’d feel about his interest in her...So why piss off the guy who can spear you with your own skull? No, I imagine this is like his ‘son’ and another red herring. Panacea would undoubtedly be useful, but his chances of getting her are basically nil.”

Marquis leaned back in the seat a bit. Still doesn’t trust me. Pleased with my analysis since it places her in less danger. Of course he was. The man was a legend among villains but his weak spot for his daughter was glaringly obvious. It was how he got arrested in the first place even. If he had one critical weakness, it would be her.

Tattletale cursed, “Shit. It is her though.”

“Explain.”

She shook her head, “Not directly. Lemme guess, he only brought her into his plan after you displayed reluctance?”

Marquis nodded slowly.

Tattletale continued, “No offense Marquis, but anyone with half a brain knows she’s your weak spot. I’m not entirely sure how, but I bet he only mentioned her as a way to distract you. If he gets her at the end it’s a nice bonus, but he just wanted you pointed in the wrong direction.”

Marquis frowned in the slow way that a disappointed parent might. “That makes an unfortunate amount of sense. I can’t just leave Amelia, but that brings us to the question of what was he trying to accomplish by pushing me.”

Tattletale stood up, walking towards the window that sat on the long end of the room. She paused just before passing into it’s light, glancing outside from the edges. A bit of hurry set into her voice.

“Did you meet him here?”

Marquis stood up quickly, bone growths spreading from his body and racing along the floor. A skull on the shelf warped and twisted to cover along the wall.

“Ah, I see where you’re going. Damn it.”


	6. 1.5

### 1.5

Tattletale pushed that little door she imagined as holding in her power, letting information flood her head. _Ambush, aimed at me, plan to counter Marquis. Marquis manipulates bone, shaker, Teacher would plan to counter that. Counter bone → organic → destroys organic. He’s going to send someone who can mess with bone at us._

Marquis looked around the room as Tattletale paced. The walls, ceiling, and floor all covered in a thick layer of bone, making the formerly prestigious room into a scene out of a video game. The bone-shaper was connected to the outgrowths, evidently still pushing further beyond Tattletale’s limited view.

He cleared his throat, “We should get moving quickly.”

She snapped her head towards him, “No.”

He raised an eyebrow in serious skepticism, “Why not?”

She shook her head, “Teacher is up to something. He’d expect us to run, I’m not exactly a front liner after all. And no offense, but if he’s attacking you in your own house, he’s got something to handle you. We have to figure out what first.”

He thinned his lips, “If he’s prepared for me then staying and fighting isn’t the best option either.”

Tattletale grimaced, “No. My first instinct is we surprise him by launching a surprise attack, but Teacher would’ve planned for that.”

Marquis rolled his eyes, “While I do love Thinker battles they tend to be a bit long. Do you have any more immediate plans?”

She held up a finger and closed her eyes. _What would I do if I was Teacher? I’d plan for every contingency. So any of my typical strategies are ruled out immediately. He’d plan for that knowing I’m a Thinker, so my first set of plans after that also wouldn’t work. What would I never want to do…_

A rumble shook the building, the bone filled room shaking lightly. Marquis glanced over at her with eyes that bespoke a need for quickness. She sighed and rubbed her temples.

“Okay, okay. Shit. Do you have any Tinkertech?”

“Such as?”

She steamrolled over his words, “Doesn’t matter, anything that you don’t mind me breaking.”

He frowned but reached behind his desk, pulling a small device out of a drawer. “It’s just an emergency teleport in theory, but if you’re correct about him anticipating escapes…”

Tattletale nodded as she took the device from him, immediately fiddling with it and changing the connections, “Then he’ll have someone who can track us. If he’s not waiting at the escape point already.” She pulled a wire out, letting her power lead her a bit. _Connects two modules. Critical piece. Reversal would cause critical failure. Critical failure would be implosive._

Marquis waited patiently, “I have a good amount of faith in you Tattletale, but I would appreciate if we could get moving to the solution?”

She chucked the device onto the chair she had been sitting in, “We hide. Preferably in the walls or somewhere not made of bone. Teacher’s lackey’s will find this and be confused for a minute. Even if their tracker says we’re still here, the obvious Tinkertech will distract them. Ideally, they pick it up and fuck off. Less ideally, you spear them from inside the wall. Sound good?”

Marquis rubbed his chin as he listened and considered, “And we are hiding because Teacher will have guessed most of the more obvious choices.”

Tattletale gave him a shooting finger, “Got it in one. They’ll be ready for your powers so…”

Marquis seamlessly picked up on her dangling sentence, “Aim to kill. Yes, I don’t have a tendency to forgive home invasion anymore.”

She didn’t miss the animosity that lingered under his refined, collected appearance. That home invasion had cost him his freedom and seeing his daughter grow up. Definitely a sore spot and a sore spot for a man as dangerous as Marquis was a dangerous thing to tease at. Teacher must’ve been damn confident in his plans if he thought that prodding Marquis in his own home was a reasonable tactic.

That wasn’t good for them. Teacher being confident generally led to people being dead. He wasn’t the world’s best Thinker, but he had a disturbing ability to pull off stunts like this that certainly warranted a bit of caution. Also a bit of fucking him in his stupid face when she got her hands on him. Someone was getting the Coil treatment in the near future.

The building rumbled again and she gestured to Marquis, “A hiding spot? Before they break through?”

He nodded and pulled a dusty tome from a shelf, the action causing it to click and he swung the shelf out from its slot on the wall. A small space was revealed inside, big enough for one large person, or Marquis and a very cramped Tattletale.

She snickered, “A sliding bookcase? I knew you liked the classics, but wow.”

Marquis looked at her, amused, “People always expect fancy Tinkertech and elaborate traps. The classics, as you call them, are almost never expected now.”

Tattletale gave a shrug and a smirk, “I won’t argue with that. I mean, I could, but I’d rather not get left in the room while you hide away safely.”

Marquis simply smiled and gestured for her to go first, which she did with some gusto. Squeezing in tight to one side as Marquis followed right behind her. He pulled the bookcase back and it clicked into place as the light in the space extinguished. A small beam at eye level was faintly visible and Marquis peered through it.

Tattletale tried to hug the wall instead of Marquis, but given that the hidey-hole had been clearly suited to a single person it wasn’t a very successful effort. Instead she got an unfortunately strong impression of his cologne, her power helping fill in any sordid gaps she might not have imagined otherwise and she had to do her best to suppress a groan.

The wait was excruciating in that there was very little to do except listen to the occasional crash loud enough to penetrate the bone that carved through the building now. No way to tell time except to count it out.

Their patience was rewarded eventually as the sound of crackling and snapping came from the doorway. The bone covering the door fragmented and cracked, quickly shattering and falling to the floor. Four people walked in, two men and two women, all dressed in plain street clothes.

“Well, where are they?”

The taller man spoke, “They should be here. My power says they haven’t moved from here still.”

“Well they clearly aren’t unless they’re hiding under the desk.”

The other man walked across the room, giving the desk a kick that flipped it back.

“So where then?”

The group looked around cautiously as they surveyed the room. Bone crackled and broke as the smaller man in the lead walked by and touched it at points, steadily de-fortifying the room. The taller of the two women let a mist flow from her hands which dissolved the fragments as they fell onto the floor and eroded the bone underneath.

_Someone to break his bone down. Fragmentation can stop attacks and defend the group. Dissolving effect is acidic? No. Dissolves organic matter selectively, but not quickly. Break the bone into smaller pieces, increase surface area, lets her act effectively to counter Marquis. That leaves two more, at least one has a Thinker power that lets him track people?_

“I still sense ‘em here. Maybe hiding in all the bones and stuff?”

The woman with the mist frowned, “We’ve broken down most of it. I can finish it off, but there’s not much left for them to hide in.”

The man replied with exasperation, “Has anyone else reported any leads?”

The other woman, smaller in stature, interrupted with authority, “Call the overseer and let him know they may have tricked you and escaped anyway. If we can’t confirm they’re in here we’ll need Sanctuary to let us back out.”

_Sanctuary? Name indicates a safe place. Power creates a zone perhaps? Permission to leave or enter, thus making it ‘safe’. They have us locked in. They won’t just leave the building unharmed if they can’t find us though. Teacher is too thorough for that._

“Hey, what about that? Looks like Tinkertech.”


	7. 1.6

### 1.6

The authoritative woman barked at them, “Put it down. Hunter, anything on it?”

The man with the fragmentation powers put the device down and took a few cautious steps back. They all regarded the device warily. She elbowed Marquis slightly to maintain her angle, not wanting to lose sight on any of the four.

The taller man scrunched his features together, “I’m...getting some kind of signal. They handled it recently. It’s supposed to...escape? It’s some kind of escape device I think. Sorry, Tinkertech is hard to interpret.”

She waved him off, “It’s fine. That’s good, it might be the emergency teleport we were told of. Call gamma team and check if they’ve appeared at the exit point.”

_Knew about the teleport. Knew where it went. Had insider information. One of Marquis’ men. No, one of his lieutenants. Oh, he’s going to be angry when he-twitch indicated Marquis has just put together the same information and come to the same conclusion. Presently angry then, great. Insider information means Marquis’ people are compromised. His help isn’t coming. His help is dead._

Her lips went thin at the conclusion. That was just great she thought. There was a fair chance they knew about the bookcase as well then if they knew about the teleporter. Though Marquis was a cautious man, so she didn’t think he’d tell everything to any one person.

One of the henchmen spoke up, “Gamma reports no contacts.”

The taller man shrugged, “All I can tell you is it was handled recently and is for escaping.”

“Well they didn’t become Strangers in the last few hours,” The shorter woman said tersely. “Get ready, we’ll check the teleport and the other side might be an ambush for anyone who follows.”

They shuffled into a classic diamond formation and without any ceremony promptly were sucked into a small singular point. _Implosion → No residue → Mass was shunted somewhere → Shunted to point of teleport._ Tattletale grinned in grim satisfaction that gamma team was likely covered in the viscera of their comrades at the moment.

Marquis whispered down to her, “And the next step?”

Tattletale grimaced, “They mentioned Sanctuary, they have a cape that’s contained the building. We can’t just walk out and they won’t leave the building standing if they can’t find us. Hell, they might gas the entire area they’ve closed off or something.”

“That presents a significant problem. I don’t suppose this Sanctuary is inside the barrier?” Marquis asked quietly.

She shook her head, “90% chance they’re outside it I’d say.”

The older villain sighed lightly, “Admittedly, I’m not sure how to proceed then. Do you have any ideas?”

She massaged her temples, “Hold on, I’m working on it. Teacher likes to do the whole plans within plans thing. Twenty contingencies, each accomplishing different goals, that kind of shit.” _Alternate plans → Infiltrate the base while I'm out → Acquire Panacea if possible → Approach other independents and villains → Hit other Undersiders?._ “He probably sent some people to raid my headquarters, maybe some to grab Panacea. Probably a few other goals too while he’s doing this.”

Marquis tensed at that, “If that’s the case, we need to get out of here quickly. I appreciate your help Tattletale, but you know I can’t hide if he’s after Amelia.”

“She’s a secondary goal, he probably only sent a few men. Might even just be framing it as an offer. She can handle it,” Tattletale shushed him. “What’s bad is that he’s relying on us biting it here, which means he’s invested the majority of his planning into this. Fuck. Multiple plans, all with high probability of success, all aimed at eliminating us. Shit, ok, shit. We can get out, we just need some angle…”

The older man abided silently, waiting for her thoughts to collect themselves. She opened the door for her power wider. _Anticipated direct combat, anticipated guerilla tactics, anticipated fleeing, anticipated waiting it out, anticipated outside reinforcements. Planned for most possibilities, spent significant amount of time on this plan. Group we saw was a disposable forward, anticipated losing them in most plans._ Ouch, throwing his pawns away wasn’t unexpected, but the cold calculation was still a bit disgusting to her. Sure, she hadn’t been the best person ever, but she didn’t just abuse people’s trust, or addiction, and send them to their deaths.

_Anticipated every major possibility. Can’t plan for every possibility. Probabilities less than 3% would be only be considered peripherally. Probably hasn’t infiltrated my networks or not more than some surface level intel. Need a Hail Mary then._

Tattletale flipped out her phone. It had a bit of bulk to it, clearly Tinkertech. It had cost her an arm and a leg, not hers of course, but it was worth it when people were so spread out. Most of Bet didn’t have reliable signals, and the alternate Earth colonies certainly weren’t better. But there would be one reliable number. She dialled the number, elbowing Marquis when he started to question her. There would be time later, when they weren’t dead, to apologize.

A phone in the Boston Warden’s headquarters rang.

“Hello, this is Miss Militia. Who is this?” Came the same voice from two days back.

“Hey, sorry for the sudden call, but it’s an emergency. This is Tattletale. I need you to send Valkyrie to Marquis’ mansion, asap. She’ll need a dimensional teleportation power to get around the barrier in place,” She steamrolled through the conversation as quickly as she could.

“Tattletale? I know we made a tentative arrangement but we can’t send Valkyrie out just for-”

She cut Miss Militia off, “It’s Teacher. He’s hitting Marquis' mansion and we’re stuck inside. He’s put the bulk of his resources into this, it’s important to him somehow. Look, I want to help you guys, and I can’t do that if I’m dead. Teacher is trying to eliminate moderate independents who won’t work with him. If he gets us, that’s two less for you guys when he pops his head next.”

There was the sound of people approaching. _More teams, more competent. Wants a confirmed kill rather than just blasting the mansion and assuming. Will blast the mansion if it seems more likely to succeed._

“-a huge leap of faith to make. I know you wouldn’t lay a trap for us, but it’s not easy to convince the other Wardens to send our heaviest hitters out with no notice.”

Tattletale lowered her voice, “That’s why you have to. He’s spent weeks planning for every significant possibility. The chances of you guys agreeing to send Valkyrie are so low he won’t have planned for it. Look, I’ll give you half off rates or some free tips or whatever, because right now if you don’t do this I won’t be able to give you anything and I’m fucking fond of my hide.”

Marquis took the phone suddenly, causing Tattletale to squirm in surprise. “If it helps, this is Marquis and I can confirm everything she’s said. Amelia is also at risk.”

Miss Militia groaned on the other side of the line. “I-Okay, I’ll authorize it but if this goes wrong…”

The footsteps were louder, she spotted capes entering the room. They were fanned out in a group of five, clearly checking their sightlines and the corners of the room. All were dressed nearly identically as Teacher’s students tended to. It also worked to hide hints at their powers, she cursed to herself. The one in the center leaned forward and started to breath fire, engulfing the back half of the room in flame.

Tattletale leaned into the phone, “Understood, capeesh, just hurry.” She flipped the phone shut.

The fire started to spread, approaching their hiding place. She looked up to Marquis. “We need to hold out until they arrive. Minute or two tops. Can you manage?”

Marquis gave her a gentle smile that screamed murder. “I’m not so old as for you to start doubting my ability.”

She pulled the sidearm from her thigh holster. Marquis hadn’t made her disarm, confident enough in their professional relationship and in his power to let her keep the firearm. It wasn’t unfair either, she couldn’t have hurt him with it if she tried. She was clever, but in his own home his power was too strong for her to manage that kind of bullshit against.

She turned her power towards the group. _Fire-breather, short range Blaster. Grab-bag by how he’s taking point, can take a hit or two. Combat oriented group, left side is a Brute by the muscle and...a Breaker? Right ride is probably another Breaker and a Striker? Not enough information._

She bobbed her head towards the group as the heat started to penetrate their hiding place, “I’ll take the fire-breather. Spike through the floor, as many as you can. Go lethal when I shoot.”

Marquis nodded and she had no doubt that bone was spearing out underneath the floor already. She heaved and threw her weight into the bookshelf, sending it slamming open. As soon as she did, the fire-breather redirected the stream towards them. She fired a shot straight for his head as he did, the shot shattering some sort of barrier around him, causing him to step back in a panic. The shot had wrenched her shoulder a bit and she winced. She had stopped using nine millimeters after dealing with enough Brutes. She called it a handgun, but the more appropriate term was a hand-cannon.

Tattletale felt the heat blast her as Marquis raised a shield of bone to block the flames and divert them to the sides. Unfortunately that meant the sides were on fire and they had little room to manoeuvre. Her suit was mildly flame-resistant, but it wasn’t perfect. Also mildly bulletproof, being spider silk, but she really hated using that feature. Spears of bone shattered out of the floor, taking one of the capes through the leg, blood flying as he was stuck to the floor by his eviscerated leg. More spikes followed shortly, making short work of him. The other cape turned into electricity, bone passing through harmlessly.

The electric cape shifted and her power informed her that the cape was about to dive at them. Tattletale pulled the taser from her belt and fired the prongs to the side. She eyeballed the shot, but the cape went true to her predictions and the wires passed through their path. The electricity arced to the side, being pulled off course by the current in the taser. _Like Shadow Stalker, has limited control of their Breaker state. A lot more lethal though since they can electrocute someone while in that state._

The Brute had flanked them and started to charge through fire and bone alike towards them. Tattletale spun around Marquis, “Switch!” She shouted.

Marquis slid cleanly into her place, a veritable pin cushion of bones spearing out from all angles to catch the Brute. She didn’t have time to watch. The Striker was down, but both Breakers were up and circling them cautiously. It was a smart move to send Breakers, if she was being honest. Marquis was an incredibly dangerous physical combatant, but he wasn’t suited for fighting the immaterial. Bone couldn’t hurt electricity, fire or shadow. Similarly, they’d have a hard time hurting him, but if it turned into an endurance match then a team with breakers would likely win. One could turn into electricity and the taser trick wouldn’t work again. The other still hadn’t visibly changed, she was in the dark for them. Opening up her power further risked giving her a migraine before they were in the clear. She definitely didn’t want to be without her power when Valkyrie appeared.

They were hanging back though, clearly cautious after the costly initial attack. Not costly enough, it’s still two against four and I’m not exactly as tough as Marquis. She kept the gun trained on the three capes on her side, the firebreather trying to angle his way around the bone shields.

_Just have to buy a minute. Just one minute…_


	8. 1.7

### 1.7

The three were cautious, holding back after the initial rush. Marquis was entangling the Brute, bone binding him where it could not pierce. His limbs were bound at extreme angles, where even his enhanced strength couldn’t compensate to free him. The threat of more surprise attacks from him would keep them wary. That she had countered the Breaker helped, they didn’t know her bag of tricks was running dry.

_Conservative. Told to be methodical, careful. Not to let me speak or buy time, however. Suscept we have more traps. Holding out for back-up._

Back-up meant yet another group was on its way. They hadn’t called anything in since the engagement started, but chances were high that Teacher had some sort of local clairvoyant working the scene. At the very least the gunshots had probably alerted any nearby teams. The door was blocked off by some of the fire that had spread around the edges of the room. It wouldn’t stop some capes, but it might work as a choke.

_Speaking won’t help, he’s prepared them for all my usual routines. Have to act differently. Grab-bag has a barrier, went down with one shot. Breakers can likely change to avoid getting shot._

Her power pinged on something in her peripheral vision. _Empty space, but flame moving differently, as if licking up something. Flames shifting due to displacement, something moving through them. Person moving through them. Stranger. Doesn’t know you’ve noticed them. Flames licking up them, but they’re moving slowly. Unaffected while their power is working?_ Not enough information was there for her to push any further, not reliably. So a Stranger was flanking them while the three kept her attention in a stand-off. A basic tactic, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work.

Marquis finished entangling the Brute, he was well and truly pinned. Bone spikes dug into him at every joint and pressure point. Even should he start to move, he would be pushing against hundreds of sharp bones. He might be a Brute, but he was clearly no Alexandria. Marquis turned the rest of his attention towards the remaining three.

He spoke quietly, “Thoughts?”

She couldn't tell him about the Stranger. This close one of them might overhear anything she said. If her hypothesis was right, the Stranger wasn’t affected by the world while their power was active to some degree. Hopefully, it meant they’d have to drop it in order to affect her. When they did, she could take her shot.

“Two Breakers, it’s going to be a problem for you.” She flashed three fingers by her side at him. Thirty seconds.

Right as she finished speaking, they jumped into action. The grab-bag cape spewed fire at Marquis, forcing him to shield them with a small wall of bone. Something twinkled above them. Metal, thrown. Conductive, pathway.

Tattletale raised her voice, “Marquis, above!”

She spun one eighty around, firing blind as she did. Her hearing was going to be ruined by the end of today if they survived. A woman in Teacher’s student garb fell to the ground, knives clattering, eviscerated on the right side of her torso. _Did not have any Brute powers._ Her power was so helpful at times.

Marquis had shielded above them, blocking the electricity cape from arcing over their barrier and electrocuting them. Bone was fortunately rather non-conductive. Teacher must’ve expected Marquis to tear through part of his teams. He was layering them to wear him down, making sure each team was supplemented by some other powers in case there were any surprises. In the end, Marquis and herself were both distressingly squishy in the world of capes and Teacher knew that. He didn’t need to do anything except slowly close the trap until one of them messed up and took a hit.

A low buzz started on the other side of the bone, distressingly familiar. Small black shapes flitted around the edges of the bone shields. Flies, mosquitoes, wasps, assortment of many insects. Second Changer. _Specifically recruited to traumatize me._ Bugs rushed around the walls in a swarm and Marquis started to encase them both in bone, but it was too late. Tattletale knew how this worked. As long as a few got in, they’d be stuck being bitten to death in their own prison. If the Changer was half as clever as Taylor, they were fucked. She felt bites and stings on the exposed parts of her face, bugs trying to worm into her costume.

Tattletale grabbed Marquis, pulling him out of his half-formed eggshell and into the fire. Her suit was mildly fireproof and she trusted Marquis to handle himself somehow. The bugs on her died in droves, the ones that didn’t peeled off. She didn’t know how many the Changer could afford to lose, but presumably not their entire swarm. The grab-bag waded forward into the fire._ Of course he’s fucking fireproof._

Marquis was trying to roll behind his desk, simultaneously getting cover and trying to smother himself. His suit was much less fireproof than her costume and his well trimmed hair certainly wasn’t going to survive. She swung her arm up, taking a shot at the grab-bag again, her shoulder crying out in pain. His shield cracked apart like before, but this time he rushed her. The recoil on her hand cannon was too much for her to get a second shot off quickly, especially one handed. He opened his mouth to spew fire at her and she chucked the gun, clocking him straight in the jaw. His shield hadn’t recovered and he stumbled back a few steps, clutching his mouth as blood and a few teeth dribbled out.

As she felt the heat starting to overcome her costume a light appeared in the air, a strong wind sucking the flames and bugs into it. The Changer reverted before she was caught entirely in the pull. A hand reached out behind her and clasped her lightly on the shoulder. The Changer collapsed instantly to the ground. The grab-bag cape turned around, buffeted by the strong wind and Tattletale tackled him from behind. She wasn’t the strongest, not by far, but she was smiling now. As the grab-bag already was throwing her off a hand reached out again and he stopped instantly, slumping to the floor.

Tattletale looked up. A hand was extended to her, offering her help back to her feet. At the other end of it was Glaistig Uaine. Valkyrie.

_All three dead. Taken by Valkyrie as ghosts. Can kill parahumans with a touch. Can kill you with a touch._

Tattletale took the hand, the woman helping her up as she dusted some ash off her costume.

“Well! That was a fucking time. Thanks for the hand,” Tattletale said, putting on a beleaguered grin.


	9. 1.8

### 1.8

Valkyrie cocked her head slightly. “Truly, you weren’t lying when you said you were in trouble.”

Marquis got up from behind the desk, his previously classy suit now burnt and torn. “Yes, and thank you very much for coming so quickly. We certainly owe you.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I’ve been told Tattletale has already made arrangements to repay us as thanks. The rest is simply noblesse oblige.”

Tattletale brushed some of the grit off her costume, straightening the skin-tight outfit where it had scrunched up a bit. The design had never been meant for hand to hand fighting. It wasn’t awful for it, but she was feeling maybe a redesign was in order. Something a bit sleeker.

“While I don’t want to needle a gift horse, we’re not out of hot water yet. Teacher will have realised something’s up by now. He won’t know it’s you-” she gestured towards Valkyrie, “-but he will start his next phase soon. Can you get us out of here?”

She cocked her head, “I can.”

_Wants to pursue, associates you with Taylor’s modus operandi. Knows it wasn’t part of the deal. Is letting you take the lead to avoid responsibility to the Wardens and fulfil sense of mischief._

“Then let’s get going. I’m not her,” Tattletale said with a hint of annoyance.

Marquis glanced at her but nodded. “Yes, let’s.”

Marquis looked around his ruined study, his lips set into a fine line. She kept her power turned down. She didn’t need it to know the gears of revenge were turning in the older man’s mind. Teacher had made sure they would both die here for a good reason. Either of them would pursue him doggedly to fuck him over if they survived. Both of them getting out alive was his worst case scenario. She wasn’t Taylor, but if she was being honest with herself, Taylor had the right idea in these kinds of situations. Teacher would be off balance after this, if they wanted to strike they should press the attack before he could roll another master plan into place.

Not now though. Teacher still had them surrounded and outnumbered. Valkyrie very well might be able to handle all of that, but attacking him when he had all his pieces on the board was the wrong move. He’d be vulnerable after this, when things needed re-arranging. People would need to be moved into place, resources allocated. That kind of thing took time. Teacher would be acutely aware of that, but still-

She cut the train off. Now was not the time to be going into the Thinker-counter-Thinker loop. She waved a hand to Valkyrie to get on with it and a ghostly figure appeared. A woman dressed in bandages, almost like a mummy. She raised a hand and something cracked and popped not quite into existence. Valkyrie merely dismissed the ghost, summoning another. One she recognized. The blind man only half faced her, but his was one of those faces she wouldn’t ever be able to forget. He was one of the faces she saw in her dreams sometimes. A minor figure, but always in that certain kind of dream. She suspected she wasn’t the only cape to have that one.

The portal opened and Marquis gestured her forward. His bone was extending outward, armoring the walls and ceiling. The bone cocoon covering the room would delay Teacher’s pets, giving them a little breathing room before he figured out he had failed. She wasn’t worried about pursuit, not immediately, but anything to add variables for Teacher. Tattletale picked her gun up off the floor and fired a shot through the dead grab-bag’s head. Marquis quickly picked up on the idea, bone spikes pin-cushioning the Changer and Breaker. More layers of obfuscation.

She stepped through the portal, Glaistig following close behind her as Marquis quietly insisted ladies first. A playful smirk was on her lips, the two had gotten along in the Bird Cage for some years after all. Marquis came through last, a wary glance behind them as the portal closed. They stepped onto bright marble, Miss Militia on the other side of the room on a bulky old-fashioned telephone. The room was well lit, the table that filled the center obviously meant for mid-sized meetings. Most of the chairs were of the same make, but a few had slightly off coloration. It was evident that the Warden's headquarters was still a work in progress. If the worst scuff on their shine was mismatched chairs then they were doing better than most Earths still.

It did raise some questions. Where they were getting all their support from for one. She knew there were talks with another Earth going for aid, one that hadn’t been hit nearly as hard. She had little information on Earth Cheit, but evidently the Wardens had been making headway in their talks. A shame that Earth Kaph hadn’t been nearly as generous in her own dealings. Not that she was hurting, but everyone was low on supplies these days. It would take time before the supply chains would be close to being back to normal.

Miss Militia waved them to sit down as she quickly finished her phone call with a few terse phrases. Tattletale plunked herself down into a chair, as Marquis sat next to her. Valkyrie trod over to the other end, sitting down next to Miss Militia. She positioned herself to face the window on the one side of the room, staring out of it.

Miss Militia gave her a nod, sitting down herself. “Chevalier wasn’t happy about this. If there had been a Master…” She trailed off, gesturing to Valkyrie and letting the unspoken risk sit. Valkyrie looked out the window absently. _Trying to appear uninterested. Frustrated at being seen as an asset they don’t want to risk._

“What?” Tattletale asked, sticking a finger in her ear and twisting it around. “Sorry, my ears are still ringing.”

Miss Militia frowned a bit, but repeated herself. “Chevalier, and some of the others, aren’t happy. We took a big risk on you two just now.”

Marquis spoke first, “Trust me when I say you have the full extent of our gratitude. That man...No, actually, Valkyrie?”

She perked up slightly, “Yes?”

“Could you check on Amelia? Tattletale suspects he targeted her as well. She ought to be in the City today.” Miss Militia looked between them, but didn’t say anything. _Worried about Amy’s contact with Marquis. Understands how protective he is, knows this isn’t the time._

Valkyrie nodded, another familiar ghost appearing beside her. _Today is just a bad day for my psyche. If I had a therapist, he’d be a rich, rich man._ She pushed it away, like how she had learned to push away everything uncomfortable her power gave her.

Valkyrie opened her eyes after a moment and gave him a small wave. “She is fine. She is having coffee in a shop some ways from her, with a wrothful look.”

Miss Militia quickly spoke, “Annoyed, but unharmed then. The best outcome we could hope for I think.”

Marquis nodded. “Yes. My manor can be rebuilt, Amelia cannot. That said, I do fully intend to rebuild it with Teacher’s bones to remind people why exactly we have some sense of decorum.”

Tattletale chuckled, seeing Miss Militia’s discomfort. “We won’t start a war or anything. You did us a solid today, least we can do is see what we can do to make this easier on you guys. I’m still good for everything I said before too.”

Miss Militia gave a less wary nod. “Well, I can tell you that if you do pick a fight, we’d appreciate it if you could keep it quiet. We have negotiations going on with some of the other Earths and they’re worried about our ability to stabilize the remnants of Bet. Having a war between villains would do a lot to hurt that image.”

It made sense, most of their dimensional neighbors were wary of the fallout. Gold Morning had been bad enough, but having a horde of refugees flood your world was a longer term threat. The fact that some of those refugees had superpowers which could be anywhere from near useless to world threatening didn’t help. No one wanted the remains of the Bird Cage to decide to take over a chunk of their world. Earth Kaph had been very pointed about its willingness to use nuclear weapons if it felt threatened. Earth Shin was considered hostile territory. Earth Cheit had seemed friendly, but she imagined that could quickly turn sour if they found their generosity rewarded with disaster.

“We don’t want anything loud either. But you have to understand, if we don’t stop this early it’ll only get worse. Teacher is eliminating moderates. You get a villain community in five years with no moderates and talks like this? They won’t even be on the table. He’s trying to take out competition while also creating a culture that will keep the Wardens pinned down. He doesn’t have Endbringers, but he can still try to drown you with crisis after crisis.” She opened the door to her power a little, it helped her when she needed to articulate all the Thinker crap that went on.

Marquis frowned. “I don’t think we need the Warden’s help-”

“-good, Chevalier isn’t eager to grant it, given how overextended we are,” Miss Militia interrupted.

“-but I imagine it’d be in all of our interests to cooperate a bit. Share information on what capes he’s managed to acquire. Who has gone missing lately. Leave each other alone, to a degree. He’s our problem, but we can’t sort him out if we’re fighting two fronts.”

Miss Militia shuffled some papers, glancing at a list for a moment. “You’ve both been low priority. Amnesty was offered, and even before that we had other priorities. I think we’re on the same page. The Wardens don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the Protectorate though. You have to understand that.”

Tattletale gave a shrug, the action hurting her tender shoulder from the fight. “Of course. There’s no legal structure in place though right now. Won’t be for awhile. Hard to put people away when there’s no clear law to point to.”

“Or all too easy, in some cases,” Miss Militia retorted, a note of hurt there.

“Look, I see what you’re trying to do here. I respect that. We don’t want to put you in a position that’ll hurt that.”

The heroine sighed briefly. “I’ve never been fond of these sorts of things. Especially this early in the Wardens. The precedent it could set.”

Marquis replied, “It would undo everything that came after Alexandria’s death. How do we avoid this becoming another that? That this won’t lead to a next time, and another after that?”

“Slippery slope is a fallacy. Sometimes rules need to be bent, because nothing human made will be perfect. Even the most perfect person in the world was wrong and she fucked up big. We get around it by making sure we’re aware of it. Not letting it become a thing we excuse. If everyone who’s aware is doing that, we’re good,” Tattletale said.

Miss Militia wavered. “It’s easy to say, not so easy to guarantee. We won’t necessarily be in charge in the future. What we do now is what we’ll leave behind.”

Tattletale shook her head. “It’s in my best interests to subvert the Wardens. It would make my life easier if you guys were happy to take trades and fuck off. But that’s not how we’re doing things. We lost too much not to change. I believe that we can change, because if we don’t? We’re fucked. We got lucky, beating Scion. He’s not the only thing bigger than us out there and if we can’t get out shit together even a little bit, then it’s only a matter of time.”

“Asking for a leap of faith from a superhero.” Miss Militia gave a small, tired laugh. “You’re hamming it up today.”

“Perhaps, had some brave few made those leaps of faith, we wouldn’t have seen the end of a world,” Valkyrie said quietly from the corner.


	10. 1.9

### 1.9

Tattletale waved to Marquis as he slipped into the cab. There weren’t many places where civilization had returned in such force, but the city was one. It was leagues ahead of many of the outlying towns and frontier colonies were essentially backed to the 18th century. The city had running water, mostly, sewage, diners, and cabs, though the last weren’t so common as to be hailed off the street quite yet. Even niche shops were starting to return. By and large self-styled antique shops that sold salvaged goods from Bet, trying to prey on the gaping hole in the lives of many survivors. Maybe you’d find something that reminded you of the home you lost, or the sibling who died, and take it home for a hefty price. There were always the rumors of people even finding their own stuff, finally reunited with a family heirloom they never expected to see again.

She had checked. Nothing remained that didn’t already live in her collection. Most of the rumors were spread by the salvagers themselves, though a few were genuine. She didn’t fault them, salvage was risky business. Bet had enough terrors running wild that it would likely be uninhabitable within the century, if not the decade. Scion had damaged more than the cities, he had damaged the stability of the planet itself. Impacts that had torn through the continental shelf had deeper impacts that no one had time to think of until the dust settled.

Tattletale thought ahead, as she always did, and long since evacuated anything of value from Brockton Bay. She kept an office there and maintained staff, but nothing and no one she wasn’t prepared to sacrifice at a moment’s notice. The portal was a stickier issue, but one she’d handle another day. For now, she had one critical issue and that was Teacher.

She sighed to herself. Catching a ride back to her base would be a pain, given that she had gone dark for hours. Her escort to Marquis’ mansion was likely dead, captured, or bought out. Not that she had particularly liked that driver, but it was going to be a nuisance. She fished the phone out of her pocket, scrolling through a contacts list that contained only random looking symbols followed by numbers. She picked one and dialled.

“Romano’s pizza delivery service, how can I help you?”

“I’d like to order three specials, for immediate delivery. Extra mushrooms.”

“Certainly ma’am. Can I get a name and address?”

“Jane, and 200 Hero Avenue.”

“Thank you, your pizza will be there in twenty five minutes.”

She sat down on one of the many benches in front of the Warden’s headquarters. The plaza was nice, it hailed back to the pseudo-Roman style of America. Plaques laid in the ground for each hero who had fallen, both in Gold Morning and before. The plaque to Hero laid at the very front, the only one in its row and right by the street. Tactically, Alexandria did not have a plaque. Eidolon did.

She waited for her ride and began the tedious work of plotting out how to best respond to Teacher.

\---

A soldier gave her a quick salute as the door opened. Master-Stranger checks were a slow, but necessary part of her security. The bullet holes in the outer wall testified to her need to be secure. She stepped inside, waiting for the door to close.

“Fraiser,” she said with a nod to him. “Fill me in.”

The man fell into step next to her as they worked their way inside. He was the classic military type. Hair-cut short, clean shaven. Few scars, lots of muscle. Good man, in that he was clever and his loyalties obvious. Bad man in that he was quite willing to shoot anything he was paid to shoot at.

“Compound was assaulted fifteen hours ago, two hours after you left for your visit. Outer walls were breached, but inner locks held. Thirty two dead. Seven ours, rest theirs. Mostly unpowered mercs centered around a Thinker-Tinker team,” he rattled off.

She raised an eyebrow. “And the capes? Did you get any of them?”

He shook his head. “One KIA, the rest fled when they realized the decoy kill box wasn’t actually a decoy. We identified Birdbrain and Brachyura, the third didn’t match anyone in our database.”

A new cape, that was always a bit of fun. She’d be able to ferret something out of the video logs and hopefully figure their power out. Something challenging but fun to help her get into the rhythm of things. Probably a new Teacher’s pet, though Birdbrain wasn’t part of his crew before.

“Good work. Rest of the crew checked in I assume?”

He gave that small military head bob. She loved how much one could communicate in such a small gesture.

“All reported in, except for Bitch. An attempt on the Heartbroken, somewhat successful.”

Bitch didn’t like reporting in regularly. In all likelihood she was fine. She was low priority for Teacher, seeing as she could be taken down by conventional means. The Heartbroken was more where she had expected an attack.

“Somewhat?”

“They got Flor.”

She turned her head to look at him.

“They gave her back after a few hours,” he said with that twinkle in his eye of mischief.

Tattletale snorted. She had thought Teacher’s mooks better informed than that. Though being well informed about Imp and her team was pretty difficult when she didn’t want you to be. That was why she had expected an attack on them. Teacher hated working around unknowns and a team of Master-Strangers was a huge unknown for him. If Imp was smart she would’ve kept Teacher from getting anything useful out of that foray.

They approached the bulkhead and Tattletale stuck a finger in the small slot to the side. A prick she never felt identified her and the bulkhead hissed as it unlocked. Positive pressure, kept biowarfare agents out. Tinker-designed biometrics, kept Strangers out. And of course, very, very thick walls, which kept most everybody out. An absolute fortune in security measures, but then again, she was one of the most well-positioned capes in the multiverse at the moment. She had a lot of people well worth keeping out and a lot of memories worth keeping safe.

Fraiser saluted and turned, heading off. Her men knew that she didn’t let people into her sanctum save for emergencies.

As the door closed behind her she sunk into her chair and relaxed. Sticking her pinky finger into her ear and twisting she tilted her head a bit. Her ear still felt off, even with Valkyrie’s brief healing touch. Still better than losing some of her hearing on that side for awhile. The mementos that lined the room helped sometimes. She looked at the black motorcycle helmet in the case across from her.

It was a stupid thought, that holding onto their things kept them around somehow. Figures they’d leave her stuck with the two most poorly socialized members of the group. Rachael was fine, but not exactly someone she could just talk to. Imp was the same, though a bit better in some ways. Bit worse in others though. She had picked up some bad habits from the Heartbroken when it came to casual emotional jabs. Small wonder, it turned out Regent was probably the least maladjusted of the Heartbreaker’s children. Parian and Foil, well, they were more concerned with each other as per usual. Damn if ruling a world or two wasn’t a bit lonely sometimes.

Still, there was one she could talk to.

She got up and headed to the hidden panel, letting it open up to the pastel blue room. She gave a wave to Jack, who was sat on a chair in the corner.

“Hi Jack. Haven’t thrown a clot yet I see.”

She turned to the bed, staying carefully behind the invisible line that demarcated her zone of control.

“Hey Taylor. Sorry about the new roommate. Haven’t had the time to really deal with him yet. Teacher attacked yesterday, tried to off me and Marquis. Probably got some others. You’d be pretty pissed off right about now. World ended and millions are at risk of starving and he’s going around picking fights.”

She chuckled a little. Her power provided the same thing it always did with Taylor.

“Going to take a page from your book I think. You managed to fuck Coil and Alexandria pretty well. He’s the same breed, long term schemes and lots of plans within plans. Same old bullshit. I’ll handle it though. Then we’ll get back to looking for someone who can help you. Just hang in there.”

She sighed as the room went quiet.

Her power informing her, as ever: Comatose, minimal functionality. Power active. Can’t hear you.

Not that she expected it to change.

Still, enough self pity for the day. She closed up the room, making sure that nothing remained to give away the room’s existence. She specifically paced to various spots of wall to make sure her footstep patterns were obscured enough. The room itself had a few additional precautions to throw off Thinkers, but she was always paranoid. Sitting down at her workstation she got to work. There was a lot to do. First was maintaining daily operations. The less Teacher thought he affected her, the better. Maintaining a semblance of normality was a position of strength. Deals had to go through, meetings had to be scheduled. A meeting with Dragon and Defiant was in a few hours. That one was easy, since they were one of the few subsets of people able to make video calls these days. No need to trek out to their frontier home or vice versa.

More daily information. The influx of refugees from Bet was slowly increasing. Within a few years it would be reaching a crisis point. She was routing them to different colonies, distributing the load to prolong the amount of time before Malthusian Law kicked in. The Wardens were working with her on that point at least, they understood that rebuilding was going to get harder before it got easier. Brockton Bay itself was stable, although the weather changes that Bet had undergone had made for a hard winter. Too much cold and too many strong thunderstorms. It wore down the already battered infrastructure. Still profitable to hold onto, between having a portal and the price of salvaged goods. She maintained a small B-list team there that worked with salvagers for a cut of their finds. It was good work for a group with weak powers and good for her to get first pick of what they found.

The irony of the situation was not lost on her. She wasn’t planning to potentially murder her subordinates, unlike a certain former Thinker. Most of the containment sites were breached, but the only one near her territory had been Ellisburg. That ship had long since sunk. Some news on various groups of B-list villain groups. So far they were still unorganized, bouncing around the frontiers as the old powers consolidated the centers of civilization. Nothing too concerning. The Speedrunners had a useful set of powers, she might hire them to keep on retainer.

Next was on to Teacher.

How did you counter a Thinker with a cadre of sub-Thinkers who specialized in making complex plots that were generally accomplishing multiple goals despite any stage of failure? Well, the first was to look for absolute failure conditions and try to force them. Out-think the Thinker. Focus on points they couldn’t control and exploit random factors. A degree of Undersider tactics of making a whole lot of chaos and making the best of it. She’d need to find out who else he targeted, what was accomplished. Try to ferret apart some of his plans. She already had some of her people working on that.

The other way was to play a different game entirely. Thinkers tended to get tunnel-vision in certain ways, they’d get stuck into certain patterns of behavior. On top of that there were expectations of what rules and behaviors would be respected. What methods certain groups used. Subverting that was all part of Thinking, but there was a level of subversion that went beyond normal Thinker fights and broke the board entirely. Teacher was playing chess. Tattletale was in the mood for some Deus Ex.

Now the question was: what was her starting weapon?


End file.
